What to eat and drink in India

The food of India is one of the world’s great gastronomic delights. Few other places on the planet offer such an astonishing diversity of dishes and foodie experiences – in a country where every meal is a feast, eating is always one of the best things to do.

India's food fame is thanks, in no small part, to its lavish palette of spices, which helped build the nation’s fortunes back in the days when strong flavorings were worth as much as gold by weight. India is the home of peppercorns, cardamoms, turmeric, and cinnamon (shared with neighboring Sri Lanka) and dozens of Asian cuisines partly owe their existence to India’s seasoning know-how.

In fact, Indian cooking is not one cuisine but many, drawing on the myriad cultures, customs, and microclimates in this vast and varied country. What is known ubiquitously outside India as “curry” is actually thousands of different dishes, grouped under one umbrella name taken from the Tamil word kari, meaning “spiced sauce”. Many treats are associated with religious events, so always keep an eye on the festival calendar.

Here’s a guide to the best things to eat and drink in India.

Enjoy all-you-can-eat rice with (almost) every meal

Raised on paddy fields as green as emeralds, rice is the national food of India, especially in the South. When ordering thalis – plate meals with multiple sauces – you’ll normally be given a choice of rice or various kinds of flatbreads. Either way, this serving of starch is often bottomless, and servers may come around offering top-ups of sauces, too. In some parts of India, a thali is known simply as a "meal."

Most rice is white – often the famous basmati rice exported from India around the world – but you’ll find regional variations, from Assam’s sticky rice to the red rice of Kerala in the south. Rice is typically boiled, but you’ll often find it served as pulao – spiced with vegetables – or as biryani, rice steam-cooked with spiced meat in a sealed pot in what is known as the dum puhkt style.

Also look out for jeera rice, mixed with cumin seeds (delicious with a dollop of natural curd) and South India-style lemon rice, which partners well with fish. Then there’s the ubiquitous fried rice served by India’s Chinese restaurants – a low-spice option that children often prefer. If you're vegan, Chinese-style veg fried rice is often a safe bet as it's usually cooked with oil, not ghee (clarified butter).

Where to try it: Various cities claim to produce India’s best biryani, but Hyderabad has one of the most convincing claims. Sample it at diner-packed, no-frills Hotel Shadab near the Charminar, or its closest rival, expanding local chain Paradise. It's best washed down with a cup of sweet, strong Irani chai.

Break bread the Indian way

While rice dominates in the south, wheat-based flatbreads are the favored starch in the north. Roti is the generic term for Indian-style bread, and the word is used interchangeably with chapati to describe the most common variety – an unleavened disc made with wholewheat flour and cooked on a tawa (hotplate). After cooking, the chapati may be smothered with ghee (clarified butter) or oil.

A more indulgent version is the paratha, a layered, butter-rich, pan-fried flatbread, which also comes stuffed and makes for a hearty and popular breakfast. Another one for fried food fans is puri – puffy fried-bread pillows that can be as small as your hand, served as a sauce soaker-upper with various sabzi (vegetable) dishes.

The plump Punjabi naan is a larger, thicker bread, baked in a tandoor and usually eaten with meaty sauces or kebabs (it also comes stuffed, though more commonly, it’s slathered in ghee). Around Amristar, look out for naan-like kulcha, flavored with herbs and spices.

Where to try it: The dhabas (roadhouses) of Punjab are the best places to seek out flavorsome Indian bread. In Amritsar, head for Kesar Da Dhaba and Bharawan Da Dhaba, both feted for their excellent house kulcha. In Delhi, head to the lane known as Paranthe Wali Gali for excellent parathas.

Indian food is dhal-icious!

The whole of India is united in its love for dhal (curried lentils or pulses). You may encounter up to 60 different pulses stewed into various spicy concoctions, some thin and soup-like, others dense and filling. The most common are channa (chickpeas), tiny yellow or green lentils called moong (mung beans), salmon-colored masoor (red lentils), ochre-colored tuvar (yellow lentils, also known as arhar), rajma (kidney beans), urad (black gram or lentils) and lobia or rongi (black-eyed peas).

Where to try it: To start the pulses journey, seek out chole bhature – a tasty stew of spiced chickpeas served with bhatura (like puris but bigger and made with refined wheat flour) – at standing-room-only Sita Ram Diwan Chand in Paharganj in the backstreets of Old Delhi. Made with various types of beans and lentils, rich, buttery tadka (tarka) dhal and similar dhal fry make for a quick, tasty meal during stops at roadside dhabas on long-distance bus journeys.

Feast on the meaty flavors of Mughlai cuisine

The Mughal Empire ruled over northern India for more than two centuries, leaving an indelible mark on India’s architecture, culture, and cuisine. Many of those meaty Indian curries celebrated the world over have their origins in the food served in the courts of the Mughal emperors, enhanced, refined and reinvented over the centuries. The meaty cuisines of Hyderabad and Chettinadu, a Muslim region in Tamil Nadu, are also highly respected.

The names of some curry dishes may be familiar – chicken tikka masala (grilled chicken, served in a spicy, buttery sauce) was actually invented in England and reimported to India. But you’ll also see curries named for their main ingredients (such as aloo gobi – potato and cauliflower), the pot they are cooked in (such as chicken karahi, made in a wok-like metal pan), or the place the dish was invented (for example, chicken Madras). Then there’s butter chicken, a Mughal-inspired sauce invented in Delhi, with lashings of pureed tomatoes and ghee.

Chicken, lamb and sometimes goat are the main meats used in Indian cooking; eating beef is taboo for Hindus and eating pork is taboo for Muslims. Jains and some Buddhists and Hindus avoid meat entirely. Curry is a limited word to cover the incredible variety of Indian sauces. Some are hot, some are sweet, some are sour with tamarind, and others are infused with strong flavors of pepper, cloves, mustard, star anise and fenugreek.

The Mughals were also responsible for India’s rich menu of kebabs – many prepared succulently moist in the tandoor (clay oven). Tandoori chicken is just the gateway to a whole world of grilled meats, from minced lamb seekh kebabs to sausage-like lamb kakori kebabs and yogurty, nutty chicken reshmi. The artfully spiced kebabs of Awadh (Lucknow) and Hyderabad are particularly celebrated.

Where to try it: Butter chicken is one of India’s favorite dishes, so why not sample it at the restaurant where it was invented – Moti Mahal in Delhi. Continue the carnivorous journey in the lanes by Delhi’s Jama Masjid mosque, where Karim’s has been serving rich mutton burra to worshippers for over a century.

Curds, milk, ghee, and chhena (or why India gives cows such respect)

Milk and milk products make a huge contribution to Indian cuisine – indeed, it’s part of the reason the cow is so revered in Indian culture. Dahi (curd) is commonly served as a side dish and it’s great for taming chili heat. The most common place you’ll encounter curd is as part of a lassi – a thick, yogurt drink that can be sweet, salty, flavored with mango, or even laced with marijuana. Another yogurt-based side is raita – curd with salt, herbs and vegetables or fruit.

Ghee (clarified butter) appears in almost everything, and paneer (a semi-firm Indian cheese) and chhena (cottage cheese curds) are useful protein sources for vegetarians. Milk, ghee and chhena also form the basis of many Indian sweets and other desserts, including milk-solid-based treats such as Bengal's famous rasgulla.

Where to try it: You’ll find lassis served almost everywhere, but people speak in hushed tones of respect about those served at Blue Lassi at Kachaudi Ghat in Varanasi.

Indian pickles, chutneys and chaat

Pickles and chatnis (chutneys) are accompaniments that add extra zing to meals and form the key flavoring in many kinds of chaat –savory snacks made with vegetables, spices, condiments, puffed rice, crispy lentil-flour noodles and other ingredients. You'll see vendors selling chaat on the roadside all over India.

A pickle can be anything from a tiny pickled onion to a delicately crafted melange of fruit, nuts and spices. Strongly flavored lime pickle is the default in many regions. Chatni can be sweet or savory and made from many different vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices. However, you'll rarely find the trinity of mango chutney, lime pickle and minty-yogurt served as dips for papad (papadam; gram flour crisps) in Indian restaurants overseas.

Where to try it: Mumbai seafront is a great place to try bhelpuri, a chaat made from chopped onion and coriander, tamarind chutney, puffed rice, and bhel (crisp noodles); find it at Juhu Beach and Girgaum Chowpatty.

Sample seafood on both of India’s coasts

India has around 7500km (4660 miles) of coastline, and seafood is a staple ingredient in coastal areas, especially on the stretch of the west coast running south from Mumbai. Kerala and Goa are both known for their succulent prawns and fiery fish curries, and the fishing communities of the Konkan Coast – sandwiched between Goa and Mumbai – add more fish dishes and crabs to the mix.

Saltwater fish is also popular on the east coast around Odisha (Orissa), while bony estuarine and freshwater fish feature prominently in the cuisine of West Bengal. You’ll find more fishy treats on the far-flung Andaman Islands, where the cuisine starts to lean towards Sri Lanka and the islands of Southeast Asia.

Where to try it: The backstreets of central Mumbai are dotted with celebrated restaurants serving the seafood cuisine of the Konkan Coast. Try local favorite Mahesh Lunch Home near the Flora Fountain.

Make your teeth tingle with Indian sweets

Culturally, India has a sweet tooth, particularly at festival time. Locals enthusiastically consume a wildly colorful kaleidoscope of sticky, squishy mithai (Indian sweets), most of them super sugary. Each year, an estimated 15 tonnes of pure silver is converted into edible foil to decorate Indian sweets, especially during the Diwali festival. You may be offered various kinds of mithai as prasada (blessed food) at Indian temples – more than 10 tons of sweet treats are consumed daily by the pilgrims who throng Tirupati's Venkateshwara Temple.

The main confectionery categories are barfi (a fudge-like milk-based sweet), halwa (made with vegetables, cereals, lentils, nuts, or fruit), ladoos (sweet balls made with gram flour and semolina), and sweets made from chhana (unpressed paneer). There are also simpler offerings such as crunchy jalebis (coils of deep-fried batter dunked in sugar syrup) and petha (candied ash gourd) that you’ll find in many parts of the country.

Kheer (often payasam in the south) is one of the most popular desserts – a creamy rice pudding with a light, delicate flavor. Other favorites include falooda (a sweet rose milkshake with rice noodles), hot gulab jamun (deep-fried dough soaked in rose-flavored syrup) and refreshing kulfi (a frozen dairy dessert).

Another end-of-meal palate cleanser in India is paan, a fragrant mixture of betel nut (also called areca nut), lime paste, spices, and condiments wrapped in an edible, silky betel leaf. Ask for mitha (sweet) paan rather than saadha paan (which includes tobacco).

Where to try it: Kolkata is a great place to try sweet Indian treats. Seek out the Nobin Chandra Das & Sons sweetshop in the Sobha Bazar, founded by the family that invented rasgulla – soft cheese balls soaked in sweet syrup.

Start the day right with a South Indian breakfast

The breakfast treats of South India have been exported all over the country, and you’ll find dishes such as dosas – rice and lentil-flour pancakes, sometimes as large as a rolled-up newspaper – on pretty much any street in India. Dosas come in many forms, but the potato-stuffed masala dosa is the most popular incarnation.

Other popular breakfast snacks from the South include idli sambar (a steamed rice cake made from fermented rice and lentils) and vada (lentil-flour fritters). All are usually served with hot sambar (a soupy tamarind and lentil sauce) and cooling coconut chatni (chutney).

Where to try it: If you’re after a low-cost South Indian breakfast, head to the nearest railway station canteen or misthan bhandar (sweet shop – most also sell vegetarian snacks). Alternatively, seek out a branch of Indian Coffee House, a nostalgic, countrywide chain run as a cooperative and staffed by waiters in turbans and cummerbunds.

Feast on India’s fabulous street food

Whatever the time of day, you’ll find street food vendors frying, boiling, roasting or baking different delicacies to lure peckish passers-by. Vendors usually have one special dish that they serve all day – for example, fried bhajis and pakoras (fritters fried in gram flour batter).

Fabulous examples of this portable feast include aloo tikki (spicy fried potato patties), kachori (fried parcels stuffed with vegetables), samosas (fried dough triangles with a curry filling), gol gappa (puffed, stuffed dough spheres topped with a watery, minty sauce, also known as panipuri or gup chup), Mumbai’s vada pav (a fried potato dumpling in a bread roll), and Kolkata’s kati roll (a kebab rolled inside a paratha with onions and sauce).

Where to try it: The alleyways of Old Delhi are famous for their street food delights. Start the adventure on Chandni Chowk, the historic Mughal-era bazaar running down to the Red Fort, where Old Famous Jalebi Wala has been serving sweet fried dough swirls for a century.

Top tip: If locals are avoiding a particular vendor, you probably should too. Any place popular with families is likely to serve hygienic food. Food you can see being freshly cooked in front of you is usually safe to eat.

Share a tipple with the locals

Alongside various juices and water (served with every meal), India consumes astonishing quantities of chai – hot tea, prepared with milk, usually very sweet and frequently served as masala chai, with crushed ginger and other spices. The Persian-inspired Irani chai of Hyderabad is also highly satisfying. Seeking out "orthodox tea" (a posher brew made from high grade black tea) in the tea-growing center of Darjeeling. Coffee is popular in the south but growing in popularity across the country, with plenty of chains and artisan coffeeshops.

Indians are not huge consumers of alcohol and some states or regions are dry, or dry at certain times, such as during religious festivals or on holy days. However, there’s a growing enthusiasm for wine and spirits in larger cities, and also the state of Sikkim, where many of India’s licensed liquor producers are based.

Indian beers tend to be strong, fizzy lagers, but craft breweries are growing in popularity in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Indian wine from the hills around Nashik in Maharashtra has a good reputation. Indian spirits are divided into whiskies, brandies and rums but at the cheaper end of the market, they often taste similar; there isn't a huge divide between cheaper vodkas and gins either. In Rajasthan, seek out traditional royal liqueurs flavored with aniseed, cardamom, saffron, rose, dates and mint.

Other traditional local drinks include mahuwa, distilled from the flower of the mahua tree in central India during March and April. Exercise caution if you’re not confident of its source: some producers of mahuwa adulterate the drink with methyl alcohol.

Rice beer is brewed all over eastern and northeastern India, while in the Himalayas you’ll find tongba, a warm beer prepared from millet, and a strong-grain alcohol called raksi. On the coast, especially in Goa and Kerala, you’ll find toddy, fermented sap from the palm tree, and feni, a spirit made from coconut or the fruit of the cashew tree.

Where to try it: You’ll find feni all over Goa, but Cazulo Premium Feni in Cuelim is the first feni distillery to offer tours where you can see the process and sample the finished product.

Vegetarians and vegans

Vegetarian food in India is abundant. Despite misconceptions, meat consumption is higher in the south of the country although “veg” (without meat) and “pure veg” (without meat, eggs, onions and garlic) meal options are widely available and varied here.

Note that milk products such as milk, butter, ghee, and curd are included in the majority of Indian dishes, so if you are vegan, your best bet is to seek out Indian-Chinese restaurants (where oil rather than ghee is used for cooking). If in doubt, carefully explain your requirements. Big hotels and restaurants in larger cities are getting better at catering to vegans.

Where to try it: To sample South Indian vegetarian cooking in all its rich variety, the chain restaurant Hotel Saravana Bhavan is a local institution, serving delicious vegetarian thalis and other meat-free treats, with branches all over South India, including in Mylapore in Chennai.

A year in food

Spring (March–May)
The hot, sticky months before the monsoon see locals hunt down cooling foods such as kulfi (a frozen treat, often with nuts), lime soda (served sweet or salty, or both) and gola (shaved ice).

Summer (June–September)
The monsoon months see people retreat indoors for sit-down meals at home or in restaurants. Sweet treats such as Rajasthan's ghewar (a sweet, syrupy cake) are popular as people look to raise their spirits during gloomy, rainy days. In Maharashtra, the season for famous Alphonso mangos runs from April to June.

Fall (October–November)
People seek out filling, hearty meals as the days dry and then cool. Dishes that come in generous portions such as biryani are popular. Diwali in October or November is a great time to sample Indian sweets.

Winter (November–February)
As the temperature drops, becoming quite cool in the north, comfort foods such as warming soups, khichdi (spiced lentils and rice) and sweet, carrot-based gajar ka halwa become popular. Many people seek out healthy dishes made with fresh vegetables, such as mustard leaves and palak (spinach).